Bombing aftermath

I enjoyed the film too but for me it was spoiled by the non-Coventry accents. Mum thought the dancing was possibly at the Courtaulds or GEC ballrooms but she is far from certain. I felt the singers didn't have Coventry accents so maybe it wasn't in Coventry at all. Also, while soldiers carried their guns at the beginning of the war, they didn't at the end, or at least my mum's brother didn't. Sorry for all the negatives in this post but am behind with the Christmas shopping and haven't got time to search my brain for more upbeat wording!

The whole 15min film can be watched at the Imperial War Museum site. Go on the site and search, it's called 'Coventry reborn'

Do we know where the mass graves are of those who lost there lives that night are.. Just at the end of that video it mentions them but not where. It makes me so sad to think of all the women, children and elderly that have lost there lives in THIS city that night.

Hi Baz I may be wrong but my dad always said the mass graves were in London Road Cemetery

Thanks mickw. I did have an idea it might have been there. I have never had the chance to walk around the London Rd Cemetery, but I do intend to at some point. Thanks.

Michael Portillo stops off in Coventry on the great british railway journeys on "Yesterday+1" at 11.30pm. A repeat of the 2010 showing. He talks to a lady about the bombing of the city.

Just reviving this as I re-watched the Bill Owen film that Deano posted a while ago - In one shot on Earl Street / Jordan Well - what were the underground arched 'vaults' shown at around 05:15 here?

They appear to be below where "Browns" cafe used to be. Most of the buildings around there had below-ground chambers. Not far from here is Drapers Hall whose cellars were used as air-raid shelters during the war. Just need someone to identify what used to stand there. Now if only we had access to Google Street view from 1935!

Hi all Below ground level rooms are common in cities that had major pre-war housing, like Sheffield as an example. It's difficult to find a house there that has not got a cellar.

Everything between Bayley Lane and just after the Mattock and Spade was severely damaged or flattened. There were about three buildings left between there and Freeth Street. Many of them would have had cellars, especially the pubs, though I'm wondering if the older buildings might have had stone cellars. not brick. It was a heavily rebuilt area, with only a few obviously medieval survivors. Britain From Above showing Jordan Well Herbert Cox image of the area. There are very few photos of this stretch.

The Mattock & Spade was also destroyed in the bombing. It was replaced by a temporary pub with the same name. The cellars could be the basement of an industrial building in the stretch of Freeth Street which ran behind Jordan Well.

Primrose, hi. Sometime in the fifties I walked into the bar of the Hotel Leofric a lone gentleman in the bar offered to buy me a drink, he was at the first opening or was opening the new Belgrade (Compo as he became). We chatted, can't remember what we discussed, but he certainly seemed to have a soft spot for Coventry. I certainly carried a rifle through Coventry in 45 when on leave and going to a new posting. Someone mentioned the Rex cinema, if memory serves me correctly, it never showed a film, it was about to show 'Gone with the wind', but went with the bomb.

The Rex opened in February 1937, three and a half years before it was bombed. The first film to be shown was "San Francisco" starring Clark Gable and made in 1936. I've yet to see any evidence to support the off-quoted "Gone with the Wind" legend.

Dutchman Hi, The cinema I was thinking of was just inside corporation street opposite the gas showroom, so now you got me scratching my head, where was the Rex, and what was the cinema that got bombed as mentioned?

Hi Kaga Yes that was the Rex. It was more than just a cinema though, it was a shops, restaurant and office complex which stretched nearly half the length of Corporation Street.